If anybody cares enough to follow the nothing I’ve been writing here, you’ll notice that I’ve been writing nothing here for a number of weeks. Trust me when I say that I have a reason, and it might result in a short column on why I absolutely hate PC gaming these days. We’ll see if I can get around to writing that. Now that I actually have free time at home again, I might be able to start producing again.

My goal is to start uploading some older reviews that didn’t run on JustPressPlay for various reasons (typically because the game was already covered) before the end of the week. I’m also looking for a nice scoring widget that I can hook in. Seriously – I’ll get this moving soon, guys, and thanks to anybody following for your patience.

If I might be permitted to make an assumption about you, the reader, I would say that you probably have little or no idea how difficult it is to have an intellectual discussion about games, game design, and the successes and failures therein.For example, let’s take that old hat – the “games are art” debate.One side would contend that games are a purely entertainment-oriented medium incapable of representing the full depth and breadth of artistic statement you’d expect from another medium, like film or literature.On the other side stand a group (that I don’t understand as well as I should, since I agree with the statement just laid out, but for reasons that will soon become apparent) that contend that games still represent an artistic endeavor because of their capacity to tell stories, convey emotional response, and evoke emotion.Or something.Seriously – if you’re in that crowd and that’s not what you think, you have my apologies, but I’m not trying to argue with you here, so hopefully you can forgive me my transgression.

The problem with this discussion is that both sides are correct.Pretty screwed up, huh?Unfortunately, both sides are defending points that are only tangentially related to one another because they fail to first agree on just what in the hell a “game” is in the first place.We’re all at fault for that sort of misunderstanding, I’m afraid, since an awful lot of intellectual discussion these days bases itself less in logical argumentation and more in selective definition and rhetorical jousting.All of this subjectivity and fuzzy thinking runs a self-diagnosed Asperger’s sufferer like me the wrong way, so I figure that the first thing that I ought to do before I even try to discuss an issue on this website is present just what I mean when I use the term “game” and why I think that’s the best way to define the term.

A “game”, when I am speaking (and preferably when and if I am spoken to, because it avoids some problems I’ll address shortly), shall be defined as a discrete activity conducted under a defined set of rules and conditions with specific conditions distinguishing a successful execution from an unsuccessful one.I like this definition for a lot of reasons, not the least of which is that it’s the most academically useful one that I’ve encountered to date.It also fits the expectations that most people have of anything that you label as a “game.”Unlike some of the more video game centered definitions of the term, this meaning accommodates games that have existed since long before the advent of the cathode ray tube and allows for their examination (it is possible, for example, to examine American Football and God of War using the same set of analytical tools if those tools are tailored to this definition).

“Gameplay,” which Microsoft Word insists isn’t even a word, shall describe the mechanics and structure that the player must act through to affect or experience the game.“Controls” are a subcategory of this broad subject, dealing specifically with the mechanical interface between the real world and the imaginary field of the game, in cases where the game is not played out in the real world (as in American Football, or most other sports).

These definitions mostly exclude things like art design and narrative structure, which is probably for the best, since this allows us to discuss those subjects without having to infringe upon the core subject of game design, which also happens to be the most frequent failure I’ve encountered in my history with video games.Also note that the term “game” pertains to a specific play instance (a game of Uncharted:Drake’s Fortune), but easily expands to include all of the design elements which influence that single play through.What it does not include, however, is a game with no beginning or no end – the so-called “sandbox game.”This is one of the areas where I think that the industry’s lack of a cohesive vocabulary has really inhibited our capacity for self-examination, as I cannot conceive of a situation in which I would want to analyze The Sims and Ninja Gaiden side by side.I would categorize sandbox games – or really any game where the player is simply given a structure, some objects, and sent out to make his own fun without a goal or condition for success – as toys, which may seem like a derisive term, but I certainly do not intend it that way.If and when I end up discussing such a game, however, I will describe it in those terms to avoid confusion, if for no other reason.

Honestly, the fact that I feel it necessary to go through the entire exercise is a sad commentary on the video game industry.The business right now is absolutely full to bursting with notable individuals who clamor individually and together for games to be considered an art form, but the fact that there’s enough of a misunderstanding that a discussion of “games as art” can derail over something as simple as the definition of a term proves how ill-suited to that role this emerging expressive form really is.One central feature of any artistic medium is a comprehensible critical language through which that medium can be examined, discussed, criticized, and praised.So, if I ever write my “Games Are Not Art” essay (probably a waste of time, since I would be examining a point so academic that it’s irrelevant to anybody other than a college professor), hopefully this preliminary set of definitions can keep us from diverging into equivocation on some simple, misused terms.I’d also encourage you, if you write critically about the industry (and there’s remarkably few people who do – most of “games journalism” is really consumer coverage concerned more with what is happening in the future than a discussion of what ought to happen, and there’s nothing wrong with that) to start using these definitions, or some of your own that you state clearly and precisely, before you pitch your thoughts over to Gamasutra or get in an argument on one forum or another.It’s my hope that by setting out these definitions here and now, we can avoid any confusion here on my current forum for discussion and hopefully understand what one another is saying.

Welcome to Un-Intelligent Design – a new blog not concerned at all with Intelligent Design, as you might have thought, but rather with games analysis. I suppose I should introduce myself shortly before I realize that I need to copy and paste this entire aside to an About page, so let’s give this a shot.

My name is Brian “The Real” Seiler (like the guy from Heroes, except 1. I had it first; 2. I spelled it right; and 3. I only eat brains to blend in with the rest of the zombies) and I do video games. By which I mean I do them a lot. More than I used to, truth be told, ever since I plugged into the journalistic coverage of the industry. I ought to admit that I’m also kind of a dick when it comes to games, by which I mean that I can find something wrong with anything, and I will be quite happy to point out those problems. For the past twenty years, I’ve been pointing out these great wrongs to my friends, coworkers, and random strangers on the street (none of whom seem to be particularly receptive to what I consider to be the inherent design flaws in the latest Burnout title), and now I’ve decided to bring that wonderful insight to you, my loving public.

Seriously? I want to do this for a living. This blog is a shameless attempt to get my material out there for other people to read, process, and maybe decide they want to pay me to do it. The stuff I put here will contain some reviews, but mostly it’s my intention to critically examine general design habits, processes, and decisions, trends in the industry, and major discussions and maybe take some of the air out of these positions. Among other features, I intend to include the following:

1. The official Un-Intelligent Design column, selecting one topic from the general area of the industry and essentially raping it with a stick. Think Zero Punctuation, but not as funny, not about a specific game (unless it’s REALLY huge), and a lot more appealing than the phrases “rape with a stick” and “not as funny” make it sound.

2. A regular review of This Week in Not Really Video Game Music, focusing on new downloadable content for Rock Band, and, if they deign to grace us with it, Guitar Hero 3 material. The focus here is going to be on honest review and recommendation, hopefully with a little bit more thought and depth than what they’re doing at OXM.

3. A podcast. Eventually. I might have to host it somewhere else, because I don’t really have a lot of space to work with here, but I want to do about an hour a week where I talk about items in the news, cover any reader mail (assuming there are readers), and do my ranting in audio form instead of relying solely on the written word. Stay tuned. Producers, volunteers, and suggestions in this particular effort will be greatly appreciated.

4. Some reviews, but not as many as you might think. For one thing, reviews can get pretty damn boring. For another, I’m still theoretically writing reviews on occasion for JustPressPlay.net.

So, welcome aboard, readers – brace yourselves for negativity, but hopefully constructive dissension. I aim to please, and if you have any suggestions, feel free to drop me an email once I get that set up. Publishers, feel free to contact me and ask me to write for money. For that matter, anybody can feel free to send me money. I promise I won’t judge you for financing me. Oh, and tell The Escapist that you would TOTALLY LOVE to read this over on their site, since I’ve pitched part of this idea to them, kind of expecting them to reject it, but we’ll see. And if there’s anything you want to hear about, or any subject you think I should cover, I’m definitely open to suggestions.